snapcraft trggers unnecessary pulls from unrelated file modifications
Metadata
Current evaluation
Feature request to add .snapignore support so IDE and .git changes stop marking snapcraft stages stale and triggering unnecessary re-pulls/rebuilds. Open since 2018 with label 18.10-build-caching, zero comments, no maintainer engagement for ~8 years.
Suggested action: close stale
Reason: The issue has had zero comments and no maintainer interaction for 2903 days, and its 18.10-build-caching label ties it to a long-unsupported Ubuntu release and the classic snapcraft parts architecture that has since been replaced by snapcraft 2.x. The original context is no longer applicable, though the underlying feature request (excluding files from stage-state invalidation) may still be valid and could be re-filed against modern snapcraft if desired.
Issue body
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
40
Quick Win:
16.0
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
60
Confidence:
60
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Feature request to add .snapignore support so IDE and .git changes stop marking snapcraft stages stale and triggering unnecessary re-pulls/rebuilds. Open since 2018 with label 18.10-build-caching, zero comments, no maintainer engagement for ~8 years. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
45
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
15
|
close stale | Proposes adding .snapignore support to prevent IDE and git changes from triggering unnecessary snapcraft rebuilds. Unanswered for over 7 years with no maintainer engagement. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
40
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
15
|
close stale | Request to add .snapignore support to prevent IDE and .git changes from triggering unnecessary snapcraft rebuilds. No maintainer activity or comments in nearly 8 years. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
60
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
15
|
close stale | Proposes adding .snapignore support to prevent IDE and git changes from triggering unnecessary snapcraft re-pulls and re-builds. Issue has seen no activity in nearly 8 years. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
45
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
15
|
close stale | Proposes adding .snapignore support to prevent IDE and .git changes from triggering unnecessary snapcraft rebuilds. Unaddressed for over 7 years. |
Update history
No update history recorded yet.
Related work
-
Related To:
snapcraft (launchpad)#1477904
(confidence 70%)
Same stage-dirtying/state-tracking area; closed as abandoned with the behavior never fixed.
-
Related To:
snapcraft (launchpad)#1889081
(confidence 60%)
Another open, untriaged report of snapcraft stage-state detection gaps (permission-bit changes), indicating the state-tracking area was never overhauled.
-
Related To:
canonical/snapcraft#4
(confidence 55%)
Earlier GitHub issue on making stages dirty on file changes; closed and migrated back to Launchpad without a fix.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1809475 Feature Request: Snapcraft should ship gitignore when running `snapcraft init` | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Feature request from 7.7 years ago asking snapcraft init to auto-create a .gitignore file using the community Snap.gitignore template. Zero comments, no labels, no maintainer interaction. The init command still exists but the project has been fully restructured since filing. | |
| #1841618 snapcraft should run apt-get update | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Feature request (2019) for snapcraft to refresh stale apt-get caches in process containers to avoid build failures. Open ~7 years with zero comments, no labels, no maintainer response; no general cache-refresh logic found in the build path. | |
| #1889741 Snapcraft concurrent build | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Race condition when running multiple snapcraft instances concurrently: both check for $HOME/.cache/snapcraft/download and stage-packages, both see missing, one creates, other fails. Reported ~6 years ago, 0 comments, no maintainer response, no labels. | |
| #1805217 snapignore | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | A proposal to ignore files during pull and build via snapignore was closed without discussion or implementation. The feature appears abandoned or superseded by existing stage and prime filtering, with no pull request or resolution created. | |
| #1582417 snapcraft doesn't create binary-identical reproducible builds | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Feature request for byte-identical reproducible snap builds (deterministic plugin order, identical output across machines). Open ~10 years with zero comments, no labels, and no maintainer interaction. | |
| #1477904 snapcraft.yaml needs to make all stages dirty (was: the can't add file without recreating entire package) | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Abandoned. Snapcraft continues to skip stages when files are added, requiring manual cleanup of build directories to trigger rebuilds. |